Wii U day-one patch to be pre-installed on consoles from early 2013

Wii U’s day-one patch is rather hefty, coming in at at around the 1GB according to sources. However, Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that the update will ship with consoles at some point in early 2013.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Fils-Aime revealed that the patch was a last-minute decision geared towards making the console’s online functionality as smooth as possible.

He stated, “Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers. That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That’s why the system update was required on Day One – and this is quite similar to what’s happened with other consumer electronic products.”

Fils-Aime added that the firmware update should be bundled with Wii U consoles from early 2013, doing away with the large hour-long download and reducing the space taken up on the console’s hard drive.